
NJ gas gouge: Another raise to gas tax comes with ultimate insult
It’s easy to forget what they did to you in 2017. That’s when the Legislature and a lame-duck Gov. Christie changed how we fund the Transportation Trust Fund by raising the gas tax.
They not only raised it significantly, but they came up with a formula by which $2 billion a year would always be there by tying future yearly hikes to consumption. We don’t think about that much until January. This January, the gas tax is going up again by 2.6 cents per gallon.
The nearly 3 cents-per-gallon tax hike sounds small. But when you consider we use an average of 671 gallons per driver per year in New Jersey, it adds up. Also, keep in mind that’s just the increase. Starting Jan. 1, you’ll be paying a tax of 44.95 cents.
Before 2017, we enjoyed one of the lowest gas taxes in the nation. Now we’re the 8th highest. Nearly half a dollar for every gallon you buy in tax. That’s $301 per year in gas tax for the average driver.
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Do you know what makes this insult even worse?
They still treat you like a moron when it comes to how they’ll let you buy it.
For the many of us who would rather pump our gas, the law here doesn’t allow it. We remain the only state with a statewide ban on self-serve. They long ago convinced you you’re either too stupid to do it safely, or you’ll freeze to death by stepping out of your car, or that gas will cost someone more rather than less, economists have explained. The only reason neighboring states like Pennsylvania with self-serve always cost more is their gas tax. Period. That argument no longer works.
Some of us just want to fuel faster and be on our way. What’s wrong with choice? It was the idea most recently floated in Trenton that we could have a hybrid system and let drivers choose full-serve or self-serve. I don’t care if you pick full-serve. So why do you care if I pick self-serve?
It’s the ultimate insult for the government to have abandoned the one good thing New Jersey had going for it, a low gas tax, while still treating us like children incapable of squeezing a handle. If you’re going to keep raising the cost, at least let us choose how we buy it.
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Gallery Credit: Dennis Malloy
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Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.
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